While we’re all pondering candidates over here at Metblogs, I would like to issue a hearty endorsement for Trolloween, Fremont’s Halloween celebration/birthday of the Troll. I haven’t had this much fun at a Halloween party since I was still young enough to trick-or-treat.

I mean, where else can you find robots dancing with princesses?

Or bands made up of skeletons?

It may just be that I’ve always wanted to be in a parade, but never had any reason to- but getting to march through the streets of Seattle with a bunch of other costumed revelers, well, like I said, I’ve never had so much fun on Halloween as an adult. So, if you’re ever in the neighborhood and looking for something to do on Halloween, I wholeheartedly recommend the Fremont Art Council’s Trolloween celebration.

* 12:00 PM: Seattle Mystery Bookshop hosts Larry Karp, author of Scott Joplin mystery The King of Ragtime and its predecessor, The Ragtime Kid. Karp can be relied upon for meticulous research and interesting, authentic characters. [LINK]

* 1:00 PM: Peter Jamero, author of Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American will be reading and discussing his book at SPL International District Branch Library. Books will be available to purchase and Jamero will sign upon request. [LINK]

* 2:00 PM: Everyone and their brother has told me to read Snow Falling on Cedars, and one of the everyone’s even gave me a copy. It’s sitting in the pile of books that I avoid looking at for months at a time. I’ll get to it eventually. It’s a tall pile. And tilty. In the meantime, the author of the book that inspired Snow Falling on Cedars, Mary Woodward, will be at the Central Library. Woodward will show images and read from In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story, a true story of the internment of Japanese Americans and one community’s unique response. Books will be available for purchase and signing. [LINK]

* 2:00 PM: Front Porch Theatre presents All the Kings’s Men, the Pulitzer-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren, at Northgate Community Center. Actors and community members will read selections from the book, with a moderated discussion to follow. This is the last Front Porch production of All the King’s Men, but the Intiman Theatre will be running it until November 8th. Except you have to pay Intiman. And if you go to Saturday’s Front Porch event you can enter a raffle to win tickets to the Intiman production. It’s a win-win! [LINK]

* 2:00 PM: Richard Ellis is back with Tuna: A Love Story, this time at Elliott Bay Books. Really, I know there is a lot happening around town on Saturday afternoon, but anyone who has ever eaten a tuna roll (tekka maki) should read Tuna. Anyone who has ever sat down at a sushi bar with one or two hundred bucks burning a hole in her pocket and told the waitress and chef to keep the saki and sushi and sashimi coming until the money runs out must not only read Tuna, but buy a copy, get it signed, and apologize to the author for being a sushi whore. This sushi whore will be wearing all black, by the way, in hopes of remaining relatively anonymous among her fellows. [LINK]

* 6:00 PM: I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a book launch party charging a cover, but that’s what’s happening at Caffe Vita on Capital Hill. The Stranger’s Charles Mudede, One Pot, and Caffe Vita are hosting a dinner followed by a book signing for Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky. Miller’s book Sound Unbound just hit bookstores. $45 for dinner and a copy of the book; $30 to latecomers, and also includes a copy of Sound Unbound. [LINK]

Posted in books, events | Comments Off on Readings, signings, and other events vaguely literary for Saturday, November 1, 2008

On Wednesday, the UW Daily endorsed Dino Rossi over Christine Gregoire for governor [#]. The next day’s letter from the editor provided a little context:

Just as I was proud when the editorial board finished its deliberations about the gubernatorial candidates and made a final decision, I was proud when the comments and e-mails started pouring in. I was proud because the response meant that not only had we gone forward with an opinion we thought was right even though it was not of the local majority, our readers had also felt they had the freedom to respond. [daily]

Sparking dialog and pageviews definitely makes a lot more sense than a copy-and-paste endorsement that encouraged a vote against Gregoire because the Sonics moved to Oklahoma and in favor of Rossi because his environmental/transportation plan encourages putting more hybrid cars on the roads.

When I feel election anxiety and start seeing frantic e-mails from candidates making their final push, it’s fun to delve into Fundrace to see where the money is coming from, particularly close to home. Nationwide, of course, the Democrats are having a better time of it fundraising than the Republicans, but we are swimming in a sea of especially deep blue, with their database shows that $13,046,780 has been given by people who identified their city as “Seattle” — $1,594,184 from 1,430 people to Republicans and $11,452,596 from 11,290 people to Democrats.

Some of the seven-to-one democratic advantages are especially stark when you take a peek at how employees at some of Seattle’s biggest or most noteworthy employers are contributing.

employer

Democrats

Republicans

University of Washington

$279,446

$15,515

Amazon.com

$78,603

$6,575

Starbucks Coffee

$45,363

$7,067

Microsoft

$519,640

$111,991

Real Networks

$4,791

$0

Boeing

$165,045

$64,783

Alaska Airlines

$18,420

$2,683

Nordstrom

$25,533

$10,592

Costco

$21,901

$2,510

the Stranger

$230

$0

Seattle Times

$3,550

$1,602

Seattle P-I

$205

$0

These are all just off the top of my head and more careful searches would turn up more thorough results (for instance, the line for “Starbucks Coffee”, above, combines searches for “Starbucks” and “Starbucks Coffee”. I’m sure that there are many similar examples). update: the original post included “older results”; the current version omits these 2004 contributions.
Anyone finding other interesting search results?

KEXP is having a Halloween open house and have been posting pictures of the studio and the costumed characters within all day. This one’s my favorite so far, if only for my childhood love of a certain substance-abusing crime-fighting great dane and the presence of a transvestite debutante:

Many of the websites I browse on a daily basis cover nationwide topics but occasionally one that references our fair city will catch my eye. This time, courtesy of The Consumerist, we get a glimpse into the somewhat-sketchy world of locksmith companies. A-1 24hr Locksmith, likely named so the company will show up in the first few phone book listings, is a company to stay away from.

Quoted from the article directly:

A1 24 hr Locksmith answers and tells me $39.99 + about a $19 service charge. I tell him the kind of car, the address, etc. They say 25-30 mins.

I start to think things might be weird when I get two calls from two different people to confirm the address, my name, etc. The “locksmith” shows up over an hour later, in an unmarked car, with no uniform. I show him my car and he decides that my 2005 ford focus is VERY hard to break into, and that the labor charge is gonna go up to $125, for a total of $177 after tax. About $19 does not = $125. I’m sure he saw 20 year old female college student and thought $$$$$. He is very intimidating. He tells me he’s charged people $260 to get into their cars, and that he is giving me a deal, it is late at night, what am I gonna do.

The next day, the car owner discovers a fair amount of damage to her car door and the dawning realization that she’s been scammed. Stay away from A-1 24hr Locksmith. There are plenty of reputable locksmiths in the greater Seattle area.

The Grand Illusion presents the comedy-horror Return of the Living Dead at 7 and ooky 1962 sci-fi horror The Brain that Wouldn’t Die at 9pm; go to both for a brainy double-feature. They’ve also got an 11 pm late night screening of Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell, a 1968 Japanese horror film featuring a bloodthirsty space vampire.

Another comedy-horror combo is Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, this weekend’s Midnight at the Egyptian flick.

Fears of the Dark is a new animated film about nightmares, fears and phobias, created by six top graphic artists and cartoonists including Lorenzo Mattotti and Jerry Kramsky; it opens Friday at the Harvard Exit.

SIFF Cinema continues its “Dark Nights” series with Tod Browning’s controversial Freaks on Halloween night and again Saturday and a film that inspired years of childhood nightmares for me, Rosemary’s Baby, starting Saturday. If you’re looking for a film you can show your children, put aside the horror for a while and visit SIFF Cinema Saturday morning for The Karate Kid.

NWFF celebrates 25 years of “Thriller”, the groundbreaking Michael Jackson video that catapulted Jackson from mere internationally known pop singer into internationally known pop culture phemonenon. In addition to a full length screening of the long form video, NWFF presents an hour long TV special–“The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” and other videos and performances.

As part of the Coast Salish Weaving exhibit, The White River Valley Museum is hosting a family day event, where you can “weave on a Coast Salish loom, create a greeting card for friends and family, and pose for the camera in a authentic Coast Salish woven blanket.”

While you’re there, check out the Mary Olsen Farm, a 19th century, 60 acre farmstead, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Celebrate the Day of the Dead with music and dance performances, kids’ crafts (including sugar skulls and paper skeletons), craft demonstrations from Michoacan artisans, traditional altars, and a Tapete (sand painting).

The International Ballet Theater brings you a Dracula “filled with diverse artistic offerings from classical ballet and Eastern European folk rhythms to magicians, acrobats, cloggers, and tappers. Flying bats, moving tombstones, and a bit of humor make this annual Halloween production a touching and unforgettable tradition.” For children 5 and up – costumes encouraged at matinee performances.

* 7:00 PM: The U-District UW Bookstore is hosting a literary Halloween party for those who long to dress up as their favorite fictional character or author. Could be a fabulous time; could be a sucking black hole of pseudo-intellectual narcissism. [LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Juan Cole, author of Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East will be reading and discussing his book in Room 120, Kane Hall, University of Washington. Cole, a historian of the Middle East at the U of Michigan, uses primarily French first hand accounts for this book, and concentrates on the first seven months of the French occupation. If you are interested in Napoleon, Egypt, or the history of military logistics (ME! Mememememememe!!!), I suggest and recommend Paul Strathern’s Napoleon In Egypt and/or Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt by Nina Burleigh, instead. Both are less didactic and more encompassing than Cole. [LINK]

Posted in books, events | Comments Off on Readings, signings, and other events vaguely literary